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Panopticon

Panopticon

Point 4 began as a fusion between four musicians – Jon Balke, Kenneth Karlsson, Bjørn Rabben, and Ingar Zach. Percussion instruments and conceptual sounds were a mutual passion for the partnership from the beginning. Since February 2006 Point 4 has worked using different approaches towards improvisation based on compositional elements. Point 4 uniquely blends two virtuoso duos from contemporary and improvisational music and creates their music partly through improvisation, and partly through samples and fragments from existing music. On “Panopticon” simple structures and small cells provides opportunity for improvisational freedom. Certain tracks resemble pre-composed works, while others display an open and almost random nature. “Panopticon” is a work which reveals the various inherent directions in the organism Point 4.

Point 4 is an exciting ensemble with a persistent desire to develop it’s music. In 2008 they have pursued cooperation with composers such as Bent Sørensen and Rolf Wallin. Additionally, they perform a program based on James Dillon’s work.

The slow-moving, etheral, electroacoustic opening track on Panopticon, ”Wide red”, wouldn’t be out of place on an ambitious contemporary classical programme, whereas the track that follows moves in dramatic improvisational fits and starts. The final track, ”Vanishing Point”, suggestive of steel drums and gamelan, drifts along in a dreamlike fashion until an omnious electronic swell, underpinned by rumbles from the bottom end of the piano keyboard, disrupts the mood, then it, in turn, fades away. Drawing sustenance from both composition and improvisation, Point 4 make an unpredictable music that eludes categorisation. The group consists of two percussionists, Ingar Zach and Bjørn Rabben, pianist Kenneth Karlsson and pianist/electronicist Jon Balke. Zach is an improvising percussionist who has increasingly been exploring compositional structures that guide improvisation, while Karlsson and Rabben are founder members of the Norwegian New Music Ensemble Cikada. Although Point 4, as Cikada, work with composers such as Rolf Wallin and James Dillon, here the music is all their own, and from start to finish it’s an absolute treat.